equired to do so.

The first Divisions of the "Old Contemptibles" to proceed to the
Continent were fitted out with interpreters by the French. But, for
some reason or other, a Division going out to the front some few weeks
later had not been prepared for, and so we suddenly found that we had
to furnish it with its linguists at this end. But the chief of the
subsection responsible for finding them proved fully equal to the
occasion. "How many d'you want, sir?" he demanded. I intimated that
the authorized establishment was about seventy, but that if we could
find fifty under the circumstances we should have done very well.
"I'll have them ready early to-morrow, sir," he remarked, as if it
was the most ordinary thing in the world--and he did. For, next
morning the passages in the immediate vicinity of the room which he
graced with his presence were congested with swarms of individuals,
arrayed in the newest of new uniforms and resplendent in the lightest
of light brown belts and gaiters, who were bundled off unceremoniously
to regiments and batteries and staffs on the eve of departure for the
seat of war. It is quite true that some generals and colonels in this
Division wrote from France to complain that their interpreters did not
know French, or if they did know French, did not know English. Still,
nobody takes that sort of croaking seriously. In a grumbling match the
British officer can keep his end up against the British soldier any
day.

An excellent innovation at the War Office synchronizing with
mobilization was the introduction of a large number of boy scouts
within its gates. They proved most reliable and useful, and did the
utmost credit to the fine institution for which we have to thank Sir
Robert Baden-Powell. A day or two after joining I wanted to make the
acquaintance of a colonel, who I found was under me in charge of a
branch--a new hand like myself, but whose apartment nobody in the
place could indicate. A War Office messenger despatched to find him
came back empty-handed. Another War Office messenger sent on the same
errand on the morrow proved no more successful. On the third day I
summoned a boy scout into my presence--a very small one--and commanded
him to find that colonel and not to come back without him. In about
ten minutes' time the door of my room was flung open, and in walked
the scout, followed by one of the biggest sort of colonels. "I did not
know what I had done or where I was being taken,"